Sunday, 10 March 2013

Tierra Del Fuego National Park

We had another beautiful day to fill with weather that was warm and sunny, most unusual for this time of year in Ushuaia. We decided to take advantage of the weather with a trip to the National Park, which runs along part of the Beagle Channel.

We started with a bus ride from the city centre to the park. It was a bit of a jaunt and the park is very large so we decided to restrict our visit to an area with a number of short walks (to accommodate limitations imposed by my ever present foot problem) and which promised some nice scenery.

We started the day under cloudy skies and we were hoping that the clouds would clear off as they had on previous days.

Our first stop took us to a bog, where peat was in the process of developing. This gave the ground beautiful colours of brown and red. On our way into the peat bog area we saw and heard a hawk. Then we had a special treat when a king fisher landed on a railing close by. It was lovely.

A Hawk was hunting close by

Peat Bog

A close up view of a lovely king fisher

After this walk we chose another which took us through a lenga forest with gnarled tree trunks and interesting lichens and mosses.

As we walked we noticed many motorcycles going past us and realized that we were on route 3, which leads from Alaska to the end of South America on this road...following the pan American highway. We reached the end of this road as we made our way to our next stop.

Katie and Manuel at the "end of the road"

We eventually made our way to a bay on the Beagle channel where we saw many birds, including steamer ducks and cormorants. The highlight though was a sea lion who was hunting in the ocean. We saw it capture what we thought might have been an octopus as it brought it to the surface and then smacked in on the surface to prepare it for eating. The scenery was beautiful as well and we spent a quiet afternoon enjoying it all.